Purpose
The purpose of PREPARE is to enhance and expand methods for training students’ creative and critical skills through science or engineering research activities at universities within the Danish Realm.
PREPARE focuses on disciplines within natural and technical science educations that align with the strategic key themes of the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) Strategy and goals – Novo Nordisk Fonden. The grants will provide science and/or engineering teachers with the resources they need to implement new educational ideas and allow them to better PREPARE students to solve complex societal problems.
Areas of support
The grants support the following categories of educational developments at universities:
Digital development of educations, Research infrastructure development for educations and Upgrade content of educations .
Assessment criteria put weight on quality and novelty of the project (including educational research results or pedagogical motivations behind the project), impact, execution and evaluation, environment and collaboration, and competence of the applicant/co-applicants.
Eligibility
PREPARE projects must be applied for by employees engaged in educational developments at universities and employed at the level of assistant-, associate- or full professor and with a permanent or tenure-track contract, or alternatively with a secured employment contract for the duration of the project. For the latter case, a statement regarding employment must be added to the mandatory support letter from the university.
Fields of teaching within the scope of PREPARE:
All areas of natural and technical science educations that align with the NNF 2030 strategic key themes ( Strategy and goals – Novo Nordisk Fonden) are eligible to be applied for. Applicants are welcome to contact the Foundation to confirm if a proposed teaching development falls within the scope of PREPARE (see contact information page 2 in Guidelines).
The primary target group of the proposed activities are bachelor and master students within natural and technical science educations at universities in the Danish Realm.
General eligibility criteria:
- The application must include a letter of support from the pro-dean for education or an educational leader at similar or higher level, responsible for educational programmes at the university, for each applicant or co-applicant.
- Applications must include an expected change model (see section 1.6 in Guidelines).
- Applicants/Co-applicants must be employed by a university in the Danish Realm.
- The institution where the teaching is anchored must be a university/universities in the Danish Realm with relevant teaching activities in natural or technical science disciplines.
In addition to the specific eligibility rules listed, please check also the more general rules here:
Rules for Grant Eligibility and Assessment – Novo Nordisk Fonden
Application process
The application process consists of two phases. Phase I: Selection at university level starts when the call opens and is managed by the main applicant university. Phase II: External peer-reviews and evaluation in NNF begins after the submission deadline, where the NNF manages the external peer-reviews and evaluation.
Please note that section 3.4 of the application guide concerning the Proposal was updated in May. The lay description is no longer mentioned.
Phase I:
Selection of projects benefiting one university
The applicant university is responsible for organising a process for selecting up to 5 relevant projects based on suggestions from teaching committees and teaching faculty. The total amount of funding requested by the submitted projects benefiting the university should be within the following quota:
Maximum Budget Quota by University
DTU DKK 15 million
KU DKK 15 million
AU DKK 10 million
AAU DKK 10 million
SDU DKK 10 million
ITU DKK 8 million
RUC DKK 8 million
FU (University of the Faroe Islands): DKK 5 million
Selection for joint projects (projects with co-applicants)
In addition to the projects within the university quota, it is also possible for two or more universities to jointly propose up to 5 projects that will benefit all the collaborating universities). The total budget for all joint projects (projects with co-applicants) proposed by each main applicant university cannot exceed DKK 15 million.
It is the responsibility of each applicant/co-applicant university to ensure that the number of applications and the total budget applied for by the submission deadline adheres to the guidelines and budget quota.
Notice that all applications must have a letter of support from the pro-dean for education or an educational leader at a similar or higher level (also responsible for the educational programs at the university) for each applicant or co-applicant.
Please note that questions regarding the process of submission should be directed to the applicant/co-applicant university’s pro-dean for education or educational leader at similar or higher level, responsible for educational programmes at the respective university.
Phase II:
External peer-reviews and evaluation in NNF
The NNF will conduct an evaluation of the applications based on international external peer-review, using experts in the relevant fields. The evaluation criteria are described in section 1.8.
Once allapplications have been assessed, applicants will be notified about the grant decisions. Notification e-mails will be sent from [email protected] to the e-mail address used when creating a profile in NORMA.
